KERRY WASHINGTON ADDRESSES ART IN SCHOOLS AND HER DESIRE TO SEE PRESIDENT OBAMA RE-ELECTED ON WASHINGTON WATCH WITH ROLAND MARTIN SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14

Topics Include: Analysis of the Vice Presidential Debate; The Supreme Court Hearing on Affirmative Action at the University of Texas; and an update on voter suppression

October 12, 2012, Silver Spring, MD- This week, managing editor and host Roland S. Martin continues his conversation with actress Kerry Washington (“Scandal“) who expresses concerns over the lack of arts in schools, and shares her hope that President Barack Obama is re-elected to a second term, on WASHINGTON WATCH WITH ROLAND MARTIN, Sunday, October 14 on TV One at 11 AM EDT/ 8 AM PDT.

Following what Martin describes as the “Throw down in Kentucky,” Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan’s Vice Presidential Debate, Martin leads a discussion on the overall outcome – who won – and its impact on next week’s debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Read more…

By Torrance StephensThere are just a few months left before the November Presidential elections. The choice has been mad for many in the simple terms of Democrat or Republican and Obama versus Romney. However, what is not known to most is that these two individuals actually are more alike than different. We know about the basics: that the both like Star Trek, attended Harvard Law School and the Television situational comedy Modern Family, but they are just as alike from a policy perspective. The following are ten examples in which they are more alike than different.

In all honesty, Mitt Romney and the current cast of GOP caricatures remind me of a 1970s bad Kung Fu movie. Now we can outline all of Romney’s flaws and problems and even place in the open field for all to examine. But it will not make a difference objectively, for most folk, especially white ones. Likewise, we all know that the GOP traditionally is the party of white folks and it will always be such. And even though they know in their hearts and minds that Romney is dumb as a door knob, they will still vote for him even knowing you cannot trust a man’s who hair never moves.

The last part is the kicker. The election of Barack Obama was a Damascene Moment for the Republicans similar to what happened to Paul of Tarsus on his journey to Damascus. It was a call to arms for white folk especially in the GOP, to come to grips with the fact they had taken the most powerful position, the Presidency of the United State for granted assuming it would always be held by a white man or woman. They just assumed that he or she would always be a white Anglo Saxon protestant. Now they are upset: the audacity for Black folk to have a president that looks like them at the head of our table.

“You are already dead to the world.” This was written by the Marquis de Sade in The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings . Unfortunately, via logic and real life occurrences, it is clear that this is consonant with the manner in which men of African descent are apprised in the United States. It is so bad that many of us do not even respect our own lives let alone the life, well-being and prosperity of another.

It should be obvious to the astute and free thinker, after all even prior to the founding fathers, the historical fact is that slavery had been a prominent feature of America almost two centuries before the founders took up the process of writing a constitution and that there had been few if any real efforts to end the ugly and barbaric practice according to, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay. Even with the constitution, the development and acceptance of the continuous tradition as to how European Americans perceived individuals form Africa, whether slave or free man has been consistent upon these shores ever since.Read more…

Attribution is extremely important in writing. Over this past week, I picked up a copy of the Nation Magazine at my local library. There they have a basket where people can bring their used magazines for others to read. It is there where I pick up the Nation along with “The Smithsonian”, “Reason” and my new favorite “The American Conservative.” Strange since they attack republicans and democrats equally and tend to be libertarian in purview, but the writing is unquestionably some of the best this country has to offer. Any Who.

I was reading an article by Dorian T. Warren who currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. In the article he made reference to the phrase “Obama era blacks.” His piece was about how African Americans who generally support Obama have a higher level of trust in government, than we have had historically, given what he describes as the “persistently high levels of black unemployment, rising to Depression-like numbers in many urban areas during the Great Recession; increasingly punitive criminal justice policies and the disproportionate imprisonment of minority offenders; a reneged government commitment to addressing inequality and poverty, as seen in welfare reform and the declining real value of the minimum wage; and an ongoing failure to provide equal access to high-quality public education, whether K-12 or higher.”Read more…

They say that the economy is growing and that we are in the midst of an economic recovery, but as I look at my neighbors who are losing their homes and the parents in the PTA who are under-employed and looking for full-time employment, I must admit I do not see or feel it.

I figure Obama and the democrats have to say such to make themselves look good. Likewise, the Republicans have to intentionally imped programs and the efforts of the President to make him look bad. Regardless, the view from the ground level remains one of wealthy politicians bickering like caddy nanny goats. Charlie Brown’s sister Sally said it best in “The Great Pumpkin”…”You elect them then they weasel out of their promises.”

Maybe we get what we deserve. We have been on this trajectory since Nixon accepted the Britton-Woods agreement, removing American from the Gold standard and an asset based monetary system. Now artificial asset bubbles are retro chic and occur everywhere we look in our economy. That’s what happens when one has no asset to back paper. All the government has to do when they are short on cash and need to pay someone is print as much paper money as needed, borrowing more and more and growing more debt (something us regular folk cannot do) creating an environment where everyone from the Government to the Banks accrue debt to capitalization ratios, like MF Global of more than 30 to 1. USB for example is leveraged at 50 to 1.Read more…

Michael Stephen Steele was born on Andrews Air Force Base in Prince Georges County, Maryland on October 19, 1958, but given up for adoption while still in infancy. He was then raised by William and Maebell Steele, although Maebell eventually remarried following her husband’s untimely death in 1962.

Michael attended Archbishop Carroll Roman Catholic High in Washington, DC, before matriculating at Johns Hopkins University where he earned a BA in international studies. He subsequently studied to become a monk for several years, until he decided to leave the seminary shortly before being ordained. Instead, he proceeded to earn a J.D. at Georgetown University en route to landing a position as a staff attorney at a leading, international law firm.

Steele first entered politics in 2000, which is when he was voted Chairman of Maryland’s Republican Party. A couple of years later he won the State’s race for Lieutenant Governor, and by 2008 he had become the first African-American ever elected to serve as Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

He is currently a commentator on MSNBC, where he’s generally the lone conservative in a sea of liberal pundits. Here, the former RNC Chairman reflects on his life and philosophy, on his hopes for the GOP, and on the Party’s prospects for attracting more African-American voters in 2012. Read more…

I really don’t understand the interventionists who come to Obama’s defense any time someone ostensibly questions his blackness. Being black is about a lot of things, and yes, among those things are the identifiables like hair texture, skin color, and facial features, but there are other more murky endowments as well.

The reason black men keep a fresh cut and black women keep a fresh do is not just because we take pride in our appearance (we do), but because we welcome the affinity of being around kin, especially at the end of a hard week. Without knowing anything about the backgrounds of the people in the shop, you know you can say “giiirrrl did you see that….” or “maaan what about that…” and have people you never met a day in your life race to finish your sentence. It’s not about race as much as it is about a shared cultural experience and the resulting shared values.

So when people question Obama’s blackness, they’re not questioning his race as much as his anchoring. What we’re asking is whether Obama is anchored in the African American experience.

I’ll be the first to admit that it was downright moronic to mint Bill Clinton as the first black president, but let’s not forget why we bestowed that title upon him; we believed (rightly or wrongly) that Clinton felt our pain. He spoke to our issues in a way that resonated with us, maybe because he enjoyed many of the same things as we enjoyed (Aretha, jazz, good food), but we felt some commonality there. Read more…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its most recent unemployment data. We knew that black folks (especially men) would be at the bottom, we just didn’t know how bad. Well, it turns out that the numbers exceed even the most pessimistic predictions.

Black unemployment shot up like a rocket during the month of August, rising from an abysmal 15.9 percent to an even more shocking 16.7 percent. Much of the increase was driven by black male unemployment, which rose from 17 to 18 percent. Black female unemployment remained steady at 13.4 percent, and black teen unemployment experienced a dramatic increase from 39.2 percent to an astounding 46.5 percent. Read more…

When members of the black community accuse the Obama White House of behaving disrespectfully toward the black community, this is what they mean:

“Is President Obama finally ready to bite back and throw down with black leaders who have ridden him nonstop for the past few months for his lack of attention to black America? Politico quoted an Obama insider as saying, “The whole thing is bull-[bleep] … We have met with [black leaders] more than any other group and we are increasing our outreach.”

Bullshit?

If the mere injection of the African American community into a conversation prompts you to use swear words, then not only are you unsympathetic to the needs of the African American community, you’re openly combative. Read more…

Writer Trymaine Lee recently spoke on President Obama’s economic policies, particularly as they relate to the African American community. Lee does a very good job of comparing the statements of President Obama on black unemployment to those of Presidents Carter and Reagan, who also faced historic unemployment during their regimes. I am not sure why Lee left the Bush presidents off the table, but I suspect it is because they ran the nation when the economic situation was not nearly as dire.

Lee seems to argue that both Reagan and Carter differed from President Obama in that they were not afraid to address black people directly or advocate for targeted economic policy to urban centers or people of color. However, when President Obama has been confronted with the unique challenges facing black America, a “rising tide will lift all boats” metaphor was used. In his metaphor, President Obama was effectively arguing that if he helped everyone, that would automatically help the African American community. Read more…

I love Tom Joyner. In case you’re wondering, in “black political speak,” when someone mentions that they love someone, that means that they are about to crack a walnut over their forehead. I remember Tavis Smiley telling Al Sharpton that he loved him right before he proceeded to attack him with the ferocity of an angry baby’s mama looking for additional child support. Read more…